Graham on Bailing out Detroit: ‘Hell, No’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) expressed strong opposition to the idea of the federal government bailing out the bankrupt city of Detroit on Fox News Wednesday, telling On The Record host Greta Van Susteren "Hell, no."

The idea of the federal government in its current fiscal state giving money to any municipality, Graham said, was absurd:

GRAHAM: Well, let's see. We're supposed to bail out Detroit. That's coming. Your listeners need to understand what I said about the Mideast. Three things are happening that will change the Mideast forever in a bad way. They're happening in front of us, but the idea of the federal government that's broke as hell, $17 trillion in debt, giving money to Detroit or any other municipality that's broke is absurd. You don't borrow money from somebody who's already broke, and we're laying off defense people —

VAN SUSTEREN: So what's going to happen?

GRAHAM: I think they're going to come to the Congress, and people like me are going to say no. It's not that I hate Detroit, I don't, but we're broke at the federal level, we're laying off defense workers, we're restricting the number of military personnel because of sequestration. Nine fighter squadrons are grounded.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you're a no?

GRAHAM: I'm supposed to bail out Detroit when you've got half the Air Force grounded or nine squadrons? Hell, no. This is not the right thing to do. Detroit needs to fix Detroit, Lindsey Graham needs to fix Washington, and Washington is broken, and we can't take on Detroit's problems because we've got more problems of our own than we can solve right now, so no, no, no.